Getting in

The odds of getting into a competitive college have never been tougher. Harvard recently was deluged with a record 18,000 applications for the 1,600 places in its 1995 freshman class. At Stanford, Duke, Rice, Pomona, and M.I.T., students from around the world are crowding to get in. Being a class valedictorian is no guarantee of admission, nor are great SAT scores and a list of student activities a mile long. No matter how smart, talented, or accomplished, a student has every reason to wonder: Do I have what they're looking for? Am I going about it the right way? As a guide to this all-important rite of passage, Getting In goes well beyond the mere facts and advice of a traditional guidebook by taking us inside the admissions office of one of the most selective colleges in the country to witness first-hand exactly how decisions are made. During one representative year, veteran reporter Bill Paul follows five high-school honor students, a guidance counselor with an exceptional record for getting students into top colleges, and Fred Hargadon - formerly dean at Stanford and Swarthmore and now dean of admission at Princeton - through each step of the selection process.